Chumoukedima, Nagaland, April 19 (HBTV): Voting to the 18th Lok Sabha, which is being called a ‘battle for survival of democracy’ by India’s opposition parties, began on April 19, Friday. The general election is to be conducted from April 19 to June 1 2024 to elect 543 members to the Lok Sabha.
The election is scheduled to be conducted in seven phases.
In the first of the 7-phase exercise, voting is being held in 102 seats across 21 states and Union Territories.
The first phase of polls is being conducted in all seats of Tamil Nadu (39 seats), Rajasthan (12), Uttar Pradesh (8), Madhya Pradesh (6), Uttarakhand (5), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (2), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Puducherry (1), Sikkim (1), and Lakshadweep (1 seat).
There will be five seats each in Assam and Maharashtra, four in Bihar, three in West Bengal, two in Manipur; and one each in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chhattisgarh state.
The opposition parties’ bloc Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) is fighting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Twenty six opposition parties in the country, including two national and 24 regional parties, have formed its united front, INDIA, to fight the elections against the ruling BJP-led NDA.
In 2019, the United Progressive Alliance won 45 of 102 seats and the NDA 41. Six of the seats were redrawn as part of delimitation. The counting of votes will be on June 4.